UK plan to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees ‘won’t happen because of chronic lack of school places’

Government target to home 10,000 Syrian children appears unrealistic due existing pressures on classrooms

BY STEVE HAWKES, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR

13th September 2016, 3:00 am

Updated: 4th July 2017, 4:14 pm

PLANS to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020 are at serious risk because of a chronic lack of school places in the UK – a report warns today.

In a blistering report, the National Audit Office says that councils are pulling out of the resettlement programme because of the huge pressure they already face in finding space for kids in their area.

AP:Associated Press

A report found the plans to resettle Syrian children are at risk due to existing pressure on UK schools

Councils need to secure an estimated 10,664 childcare and school places for Syrian children being resettled under the programme announced by David Cameron last year.

But the NAO warns that one in five schools in the UK are full or over-capacity because of funding pressures, sky-high immigration and the explosion in Britain’s population.

It added there were also fears in parts of the UK about finding enough available homes.

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Funding pressures and Britain's growing population means school places are already fought over

The NAO said: “The programme will need an estimated 4,930 houses or flats and an estimated 10,664 childcare and school places over its lifetime.

“Local authorities told the NAO that this was the main barrier to their participation in the programme in future.”

Official figures in May revealed that schools were under “huge and unsustainable pressure” from a dramatic rise in the number of children from migrants’ families.

Almost 700,000 school-aged children – one in 15 pupils nationally - have a parent who is a citizen of another European country. This number has doubled since 2007.

PA

Ex-PM David Cameron announced the UK's commitment to resettling 20,000 Syrian refugees last September